Call: Processes in ecosystem-based management of marine and fresh water environments

With this call the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management are aiming to fund a synthesis analysis regarding ecosystem-based management of aquatic environments.

Fourteen of our sixteen Environmental Quality Objectives are not deemed to be achievable by 2020 with the current policy instruments and planned measures.

With this call, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) and the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (SwAM) are aiming to fund a synthesis analysis that increases the knowledge about management-processes based on the ecosystem-approach, and how these can be applied in marine and fresh water environments.

For the synthesis analysis, an interdisciplinary approach is required that lifts both the social science perspective on management processes as well as the underlying need from both natural and social sciences to understand and evaluate effects on nature and society.

The synthesis should contain a summary of successful experiences of using the ecosystem approach in environmental management, and an analysis of how this knowledge can be adapted to management of marine and fresh water environments. The goal is to identify and highlight examples of management, advisory processes and tools that can be used in fish, marine and water management in Sweden. Furthermore, the synthesis should consider how ecosystem-based management can be carried out given different constraints in timescales, geographical scales and administrative boundaries.

SEPA and SwAM invites organizations, individual researchers or research groups to submit applications for the synthesis analysis in the order of up to SEK 1.5 million (including overhead costs) for 2017. We encourage researchers from different disciplines to work together. The deadline for applications is the 15th of September 2016.

Applications in environmental management

In order to reach the national Environmental Quality Objectives over time there needs to be a societal shift that prevents environmental problems. An ecosystem-based management could have a large impact for such a shift. Ecosystem-based management takes into account how humans, the environment and other species interact and affect each other, as well as how different interests can be involved in management processes.

There are great challenges in marine and water management with regards to taking responsibility for shared natural resources, to understand the causality links and to make trade-offs between different areas of use. For a long-term management and a sustainable use of national resources there is a need to view the ecosystem as a whole and to integrate different sectors in management. This is especially true when it comes to conflicts between different types of exploitation and environmental protection. To unify the management of living environments and natural resources, processes and tools are needed that can make the step from single-species management to managing the environments and ecosystem services in a comprehensive way. This raises demands on several ecosystem management process levels to cooperate (locally, nationally, regionally and internationally).

SEPA and SwAM expect to benefit from the results of synthesis analysis in, among other areas, the evaluation of the Environmental Quality Objectives: A Balanced Marine Environment, Flourishing Coastal Areas and Archipelagos, Flourishing Lakes and Streams and A Rich Diversity of Plant and Animal Life. The synthesis can be especially useful in the context of fisheries management, protection of valuable natural environments, and in the possibility for humans to use nature in a sustainable way.

The results from the synthesis analysis will be used in SwAM’s work to apply the ecosystem approach to several management areas, as well as in developing a strategy for how an ecosystem-based fisheries management plan should be constructed, so that it can be an integrated part in achieving the targets for marine and water management.

Priorities

This synthesis work should contain:

Good examples of management processes and advisory processes, strategies and tools for applying the ecosystem approach. The examples can come from all types of environments, but should be relevant for implementation in marine and fresh water environments.

An analysis of how the presented examples can be utilized in the application of the ecosystem approach in fish, marine and water management.

Identification of the pre-requisites and needs for the development of the management processes and advisory processes during the application of the ecosystem approach in environmental and natural resources management.

Who can apply?

The main applicant must hold a PhD and conduct research at universities, colleges, research institutes, or government agencies carrying out research as part of its mandate. “Research institute” refers to organizations that have research as their sole or principal part of their mandate. The main applicant should be affiliated with a Swedish organization with a Swedish corporate identity number (“organisationsnummer”).